Ad Agencies Net Praise From PETA for Banning Images of Breathing-Impaired Dog Breeds

For Immediate Release:
June 22, 2023

Contact:
Sara Groves 202-483-7382

After hearing from PETA that bulldogs, pugs, and other breathing-impaired dog breeds (BIB) suffer from an array of physical disabilities due to their purposely flattened, pushed-in snouts, a growing list of compassionate ad agencies and similar organizations—including Wunderman Thompson, Ogilvy, Leo Burnett Chicago, the Ad Council, RPA, and Sanders\Wingo—have pledged not to feature images of BIBs in any newly produced advertising or marketing materials going forward.

“By leaving these suffering breeds out of advertising, these agencies are helping to reduce the demand for dogs who are purposefully bred to have life-threatening deformities,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is celebrating these industry leaders for taking a stand against promoting flat-faced dogs and urges other ad agencies, businesses, and institutions to follow their lead.”

PETA points out that BIBs suffer from a multitude of health problems due to their deliberately distorted and restricted airways, which shorten their lives and cause them to pant, snort, wheeze, and struggle just to breathe—all in order to achieve a particular look. Breeding them also exacerbates the companion animal–homelessness crisis, which sees around 70 million animals homeless in the U.S. at any given time. A number of countries—including Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, and Norway—have banned or restricted the breeding of some or all breathing-impaired breeds.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment or abuse in any other way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.